World

Global issues, U.N., etc.

Shrinking Cities: The Antidote to Greenfield Development

Developers should be looking to shrinking cities like Detroit and Buffalo, not to greenfields, for future development.

February 21, 2014 - Future Cities

Shanghai Maglev

The Future is Cities

Cities are growing faster than you can say megalopolis. But as populations around the world shift to urban areas, cities are also focal points for global challenges—water, energy, health. MIT is working to address these issues.

February 20, 2014 - Spectrvm

Japanese shipyard worker performs preservation work on ships air conditioning system.

Getting Stuff Done: What City Planning Is All About

How can cities and towns narrow the gap between promise and performance and, in doing so, build a solid brand? Ben Brown offers a one step to-do list: Get stuff done.

February 19, 2014 - PlaceShakers

10 Tops on Twitter: Transportation

Interested in city transportation and mass transit? Here are the Top 10 accounts to follow on Twitter.

February 19, 2014 - Future Cities

San Antonio, Texas, Riverwalk, Evening

10 Unexpected Cities to Love

A valentine to ten cities around the world that are quietly creating urban paradigms to admire and emulate.

February 14, 2014 - Future Cities

Film Makes the Walls Talk for Six Famous Buildings

An expansive new 3D film, shown recently at the Berlin Film Festival, collects a series of vignettes that anthropomorphize buildings like the Berlin Philharmonic, the National Library of Russia, and the Salk Institute.

February 13, 2014 - Variety

Do Canada's Active, Outdoor Winters Breed Olympics Gold?

If you need a little misery-loves-company commiseration on winter, Hazel Borys shares some pics from Winnipeg, the coldest big city on earth. How this winter city deals with the polar vortex is something we may all need to get used to.

February 13, 2014 - PlaceShakers

Two young girls carry water on the train tracks that run through the Kibera Slum

Our Fragile Emerging Megacities: A Focus on Resilience

The number of megacities is expected to double over the next decade, and many of these growing cities are far from resilient. The solution: frugal engineering and local knowledge.

February 12, 2014 - Kevin C. Desouza

Green Schoolyard Movement: Gaining Momentum

"Well-designed green schoolyards model the ecologically-rich cities we would like to inhabit. They do this at a smaller scale and teach the next generation how to live more lightly on the Earth—shaping places where urbanization and nature coexist."

February 11, 2014 - Children & Nature Network

The Bean in Millenium Park

How People View Their Cities, in 30 Pictures

One of the best ways to gain citizens' perspectives of their cities is to see what they see, and how they see it. Here are 30 photos sent in by people from global cities that capture that point of view.

February 11, 2014 - Future Cities

New Study Changes the Narrative on Slums

Researchers are building a more complete archive of life in slums, home to one-third of the urban population of developing countries. A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) rejects assumptions about the benefits of slums.

February 10, 2014 - The Economist

Critiquing the 'Green' Credentials of the Sochi Olympics

Back in 2009, Olympic officials were claiming that the Sochi Winter Games would be the "greenest" games ever. But besides a large carbon offset, the Olympics' sustainability efforts have been underwhelming.

February 10, 2014 - The Guardian

Michael Bloomberg's New International Roles on Cities and Climate Change

The former three-term New York City mayor, already president of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group has been appointed to a special United Nations envoy position on cities and climate change by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

February 8, 2014 - Reuters

Friday Funny: People-Watching Hijinks

People watching on the train: we all do it. But some of us do it better. Like October Jones, who uses his commute downtime to animate his fellow passengers.

February 7, 2014 - BuzzFeed

Zen & The Art of Traffic Calming

This week's guest 'Shaker, Rob Dalton, talks roundabouts, bollards and buffers to get your feet into a 禪 Zen street.

February 5, 2014 - PlaceShakers

Zipcar

Car-Sharing Already Impacting Auto Sales

Demographic and economic trends, and improving transport options, including more carsharing services, are contributing to a long-term decline in automobile ownership and use.

February 5, 2014 - The Wall Street Journal

Debate Continues Over Benefits of White Roofs

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently completed an economic analysis of white roofs versus their green and black counterparts. The debate over the relative merits of white versus green roofs is far from over, however.

February 5, 2014 - Inhabitat

Critiquing Urban ‘Resilience’

An article by Tom Slater takes on several sacred cows of the current planning discussion, most prominently among them what he describes as “the anaesthetising spell of resilience.”

February 4, 2014 - OpenDemocracy - OpenSecurity

In Transit, Is Better Station Architecture Worth the Cost?

Do transit stations with sleeker designs boost ridership? Evidence suggests that the answer may be yes. But does that mean that we should spend limited transit funds on better architecture?

February 3, 2014 - Atlantic Cities

La City Hall Cycling

8 New Jobs City Hall Needs Now

City Hall isn't what it once was. Here are eight new positions that your local government should be hiring for this year.

February 2, 2014 - Future Cities

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.